Signal-operating mechanism



Aug. 16,1927.

E. 'J. CAIN SIGNAL OPERATING MECHANISM Filed April lv 1926 INVENTOR J.Cain BY Mam ATTORNEY all) Patented Aug. 16, 1927.

UNITED STATES 1,638,821 PATENT OFF-I E.-

EMMETT J. CAIN, 0F LODI, CALIFORNIA.

SIGNAL-OPERATING M'nioi-ranrsm.

Application filedApril 1, 1926, Serial No. 98,948.

construct the. device in such .a manner that the signal arm moves veryquickly and easily without having to overcome any appreciable force ofgravity at any position and consequently requiring lnit a. smallconsumption of current in its operation, The operation of the mechanismdoes not depend upon complicated and delicate moving parts and there isnothing in its construction which should brealt down or fail to functioneven after long service.

A further object of the invention is to produce a simple and inexpensivedevice and yet one which will be exceedingly effcctive for thepurposefor which it is designed.

These objects I accomplish by means of such structure and relativearrangement of parts as will fully appear by a perusal of the followingspecification and claim.

In the drawings similar characters of ref erence indicate correspondingpartsin the several views: p I

F 1 is a cross section of the mechanism, taken in a plane adjacent oneend of the same. 7

Fig, :2 is a front View of the device partly in section.

Fig. 3 is a diagram of the electric circuits used in connection withthemechanisni.

Referring now more particularly to the" between the caps, is fixed astem a'liaving attached thereto a signal arm 5, the stem projectingradially from the shaft and housing 1,. through a circumferential slot 6in the latter. The arm may be of any suitable de sign, but I preferablyintend to use a hollow each one to receive an electric light and havingtr: islucent faces so that thearm'may be ar lficially illuminated night.

Secured to the member land projecting outwardly therefrom arelongitudinally ex tending magnets Whichcomprise cores 7 and windings 8thereabout. The cores are radially disposed relative to the shaft inspaced relation to each other an d project practically the full lengthof the housing 1. The outer ends of the cores are exposed, as are theinner jends thereoh the latter ends facing inwardly of the inner face ofthe housing 1;.

There are referabl 7 four of these ma nets arranged in spaced relationabout the housi" 1 on the opposite side thereof from the s l 3 andsetafi degrees apart, to correspond to a nal ar i f Fined on the shaft 3inside the housing 1 is a longitudinal armatureh to cooperate .vith theinner ends of the magnet cores. An externalv armature l0, radiallyalined with the armaturef), .is arranged to cooperate with the outerends of the magnet cores. These armatures are connected to the shaft toform amagnetic unit therewith by means of arnis l]; erte'nding betweensaid shaft and the armature 1O onthe outside of the caps l h em a 'netsare disposed relative to said arniatures and to the signal arm so thatwhen the signal arm is in a downward and vertically disposed position;the arm-a tures are alined With the uppermost magnet 0 1 e. "W'henthesignalarm is at its'opposite limit of movement, or atan upward degreeangle (a posit on denoting av right turn), the' arniatures are thenalmed with tllBlQW ermost magnet. core. Vhen the armatures are aln ed'Wjltll the. intermediate magnet eores the signal arm'lies' ina downward45" degree position; denotingstop or slow,

or at a'horizontal position'denoting a left .tnr lsposed alongside thearmature 10 on Ti th re and spa n p rallel relation thereto are othenarmatures concentric viththe shaft Thesearmatur'esare connected at theirends of the armature l0 by non-magnetic strips 13. .The

armatures 12' arefspaced 22 degrees from the armature 10, so thatWhenthelatter is ahned'yv th anymagnet core, the armature's 12 aredisposed intermediate adjacent magi tS.

similar number of positions of the sig One end, of the magnet windingsare til grounded, the other ends of the windings being connected toindividual and separated contacts 14. These contacts are mounted on acommon switch panel and are arranged in successive order correspondingto that of the different magnets. These contacts are arranged to beengaged in succession by a strip 16 mounted on a lever 17 whichispivoted on the panel concentric with the Line of contacts, the strip 16being connected to the battery 18 of the car. The lengthof the strip 16is such that with the rotation of the lever said strip engages any oneof the contacts before breaking from the previous The armatures 9, 10and 12 on one side of the shaft 3, and the signal arm on the other, areso designed that the weight of the opposed parts is balanced as nearlyas possible.

Iii

In operation assuming that the signal arm is in its lowermost or neutralposition, as shown in Fig. 1, and that it is desired to cause the signalarm to move to a downward 45 degree position, as shown in dotted lines;

the switch lever 17 is moved past the first contact 14 (corresponding tothe upper magnet) to the second contact, which corresponds to the secondmagnet. The first and second magnets will then be energized insuccession and if the switch lever is left on the second contact thecorresponding magnet will of course remain energized while the first onehas become deenergized. This energizing of the second magnet initiallydraws the adjacent armature 12 theretoward, until said armature alineswith the magnet core. By that time the double armatures 9 and 10 arewithin the sphere of influence of said ma net and will be attractedtheretoward wit a force greatly in excess of that offered by thearmature 12; The armatures 9 and 10 will therefore move into alinementwith the magnet core and will remain so alined until the magnet isdeenergized. The signal arm being rigidly connected to the armaturestructure of course moves in conjunction with the latter.

If the si nal arm is to be moved to some other and higher position, theswitch lever 17 is successively engaged with and moved past the variouscontacts 14 until the one corresponding to the desired ma et and signalposition has been reached. ith this movement of the switch lever themagnets will be successively energized and deenergized and the armatureswill be successively attracted towards and will pass by the differentmagnets until the furthest one energized has been reached. On account ofthe counter-balancing of the signal arm and armature structure, saidstructure is very sensitive and is easily moved. Hence an instantenergizing of the magnets is sufiicient to cause the structure to turn,and the setting of the signal arm to any position to be accomplishedalmost instantaneously with but little consumption of current. Eachmagnet being energized before the previous one is deenergized, thesignal arm is held from possibly dro ping back from a positionpreviously reached and the movement of the signal arm in a continuousdirection, corresponding to a continuous movement of the switch lever,is therefore obtained.

When the signal is to be returned to neutral position, the switch leveris moved in the opposite direction past the various contacts, causingthe magnets to be successively energized and deenergized in the reversedirection. This causes the other armature 12 to be first attractedtoward the various magnets with the successive energizing thereoffollowed by the double armatures 9 and 10, so that a continuous turningmovement of the armatures and signal arm is had until the signal is inits lowermost position and the switch is opened.

The uppermost magnet comes into service only to draw the signal arm toits final downward position, in the event that the signal arm structureis so nicely balanced that the signal arm does not tend to drop ofitself. The outer armature 12 also is only used during the retracting orreturn movement of the signal arm. The device may however be mounted ina casing as indicated at 19 and set out in the open in any suitablelocation.

From the foregoing description it will be readily seen that I haveproduced such a derice as substantially fulfills the objects of theinvention as set forth herein.

Vhile this specification sets forth in detail the present and preferredconstruction of the device, still in practice such deviations from suchdetail may be resorted to as do not form a departure from the spirit ofthe invention as defined by the appended claim.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and useful anddesire to secure by Letters Patent is:

An operating mechanism for a si nal comprising a shaft on which to mountt e signal, an armature mounted in connection with the shaft andprojecting from one side thereof, a plurality of relatively fixedmagnets to attract the armature, said ma nets being disposed between theshaft an armature and arranged in spaced relation to each other andconcentric with the shaft, another armature on the shaft between saidshaft and the magnets and radially alined with the first named armature,an additional armature disposed to one side of the first named armature,and means for mounting said additional armature in non-magneticconnection with the shaft.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

EMMETT J. CAIN.

